The EU’s long ratification process of its tax-free trade deal with Canada, known as CETA, hit another problem recently. A regional parliament within Belgium rejected the deal and under Belgian law, unless resolved, that blocks Belgium ratifying CETA. That in turn imperils the whole EU doing so. Despite Canadian exasperation, international embarrassment and pressure from the European Commission the credibility of the EU has suffered.
Even if the CETA deal is eventually salvaged the lesson for the UK and Brexit is that the EU seems incapable of quickly ratifying any complex agreement.This may point the UK towards going for a simple clean break with the EU, so as not to get bogged-down by internal EU disagreements and crises.